Steaks
by honorarylady
Summary: Nick has some issues when the survivors find a place to stay, but Ellis helps him out.


"Hey ya'll, why don't we go down to the kitchen and see if there's any real food?"

Ellis wasn't the only one ravenous at the idea of eating food that didn't either come out of a can or a plastic bag. Since the four survivors had found out that the hotel they decided to sleep in actually had electricity, they had all taken advantage of the oppurtunity to shower with hot water. Now that they were all clean and refreshed the only thing any of them could think of was the possibility of there being food and an oven in the kitchen.

"You know I'm up fo' dat," Coach could hardly contain himself at the idea that there could be steak in a feezer wating to be thrown on a stove.

"Well we better get down there before Coach tries to eat one of us," Nick wanted to eat as much as Coach did but his pride was more important to him than the hollow pain he felt in his gut, "Because that would make me think that you're turning into a zombie, and I would have to shoot you. For the safety of the group."

"Get yo' ass movin' Nick," The big man replied.

"Come on ya'll," Ellis took a hold of Rochelle's wrist and led the way to the stairs, snickering.

The group went down a single flight of stairs and made their way to the hotel's kitchen.

"I ain't never been in no hotel kitchen before," Ellis said, looking around at all the shiny appliances in awe.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you've never been in an actual hotel before, Hayseed," The con man muttered under his breath.

"Alright ya'll, let's get looking for some food that won't make me more depressed than I already am," Coach said as he started walking towards the walk-in freezer.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to start looking for booze. Overalls, help Coach and Ro make dinner."

Ellis frowned at the gambler's back but did as he was told. He walked over to where Rochelle was holding open the freezer door and peered inside. Coach was looking over all the different packages of meat with an intent look on his face.

"It looks like we're gonna be having steak tonight ya'll," Coach said as he emerged from the freezer holding two paper packages of what Ellis assumed was steak.

Rochelle shut the freezer and smiled at Ellis behind Coach's back. "Let's just hope he knows how to cook it," she whispered to the young man.

Ellis smiled back and followed his two older friends to the stove tops. Coach had figured out how to turn them on and was fiddling with the other dials trying to figure out what temperature he wanted it on. Rochelle took a seat on a stool next to the island counter and crossed her legs.

"Anything you want help with, Coach?" The young woman asked.

"Yeah, can you try to dig up some plates and silverware. And Ellis, would you go try to find out what that son-of-a-bitch is up to?"

"Um, yeah, sure." Ellis turned around and started walking in the direction that Nick had gone in earlier. As soon as he turned around he felt his heart start to race and his face heat up. Being alone with Nick... This is not something the two of them got very often. More often than not the four survivors were stuck in one room safe houses and there was no way Nick and Ellis were going to get up to anything anywhere near the other two. Keeping Coach and Rochelle oblivious to what was happening between the two men right under their noses was important to both Nick and Ellis.

Ellis went through a doorway and saw Nick on the otherside of the room evaluating several different bottles of what looked like wine.

"Hey Nick, um, Coach wanted me to find out what was takin' you so long," Ellis made his way over to where the gambler was standing and hopped up on the counter. "You find what you were lookin' for?"

"Yeah I think so. You like red wine, kiddo?" asked the gambler as he examined the bottle he was holding close to his face.

"I ain't never had nothin' like that before," Ellis answered.

"I'm shocked," he said sarcastically, "I'm sure all you and Kieth ever drank was beer and moonshine, am I right?" Nick asked the hick with a smirk.

"We ain't never made no moonshine, Nick," Ellis said with a roll of his eyes, but then his eyes brightened and his ears perked up and Nick knew that Ellis was about to tell some horrific story about his 'buddy Kieth'. "But that does remind me of this one time when Kieth _tried_ to make moonshine though. He didn't actually know what he was doing but he sure thought he did. So me and him were in the woods behind his house trying to make sure his pa didn't find out what we were doin', which didn't work out too good by the way. Man oh man, when Kieth's dad smelled what we were makin'... You should have seen the look on his face. Shit, he never layed into Kieth like that before. Except for this other time when Kieth-"

"Goddamn it Overalls, all I asked is if you wanted red wine," Nick interrupted with an exasperated look on his face.

"Right, sorry," Ellis replied with a bashful smile, "Well, I'll drink whatever ya'll want I guess. And I bet ya Ro would like something like that."

"Sure, sure. So what are the other two assclowns doing right now anyway?" Nick asked casually.

Ellis' eyebrows pinched together but he answered, "_Coach_ and _Rochelle_ are cookin' up some steaks for us."

"So, you're saying that they're busy," Nick stepped in front of where Ellis was sitting on the counter and positioned himself between the hick's legs and braced his hands on either side of Ellis' hips. He leaned closer to Ellis and gave him a mischievious look that Ellis knew all too well.

"N-Nick," Ellis stuttered, "You know we got all night. We can even be in our own room without them knowin'. There ain't no reason that you can't wait." Ellis could barely get the words out, his pulse was racing so fast. Nick was close enough to Ellis that the scent of soap washed through his nose.

"Mmmhhhmm," Nick moaned and nuzzled his face into the hick's neck, leaving trails of small bites and kisses along his jugular that sent shivers through Ellis' whole body. "But I don't want to wait any longer." He inhaled the sweet scent of the hick and ran his tongue along his neck.

"Nick," Ellis moaned his name. His hands took Nick's already wrinkled suit in his fists and felt his eyes begin to close, overcome with the feeling of his skin against the con man's.

"Nick!" Ellis said with more meaning and jolted his eyes open and tried to push the older man away from him without success.. "Coach and Ro are gonna be comin' to look for us any minute. They're probably thinkin' you're hurtin' me 'cause we're takin' so long."

"I'm not hurting you," Nick whispered against Ellis' neck, "Yet."

Nick grabbed his bottle of wine off the counter and walked to the door smirking to himself. Without looking back he made his way into the main kitchen and joined Coach and Rochelle cooking dinner, leaving Ellis sitting on the counter in shock.

"Shit, man, you have no shame," Ellis muttered to himself. He made his way to the kitchen after waiting for a minute to let his pulse die down and looked where the table was set and the others were sitting. Rochelle had set two places on each side of the counter. On one side sat Rochelle and Coach and on the opposite side was Nick and an empty spot for Ellis. Ellis sat down and Coach started serving steak to everyone.

Nick poured wine in each glass, but poured more in Ellis' than anyone else's.

"Nick, do you really think it's the best idea to give Ellis that much?" Rochelle asked accusingly.

"What? He's never had wine before so I figured it would be a good experience for him. You know, before we all die."

"Oh shut the hell up man. It ain't no big deal Ro," Ellis took ahold of his very full glass nervously. Everyone stared expectantly at him as he took a tentative sip.

"Ugh," Ellis face screwed up as the bitter taste washed down his throat. He stuck his tongue out hoping to get the taste out of his mouth.

"Ha!" Nick exclaimed, "That's exactly what I expected. No hick in all of the goddamn south could appreciate a Colgin Cariad."

"Leave him alone Nick," Rochelle chided the con man, "It's ok sweetie, wine is something you have to get used to."

"Well if it's gonna taste like that again, I think I'd rather drink water," Ellis said with a grimace and got up to fill a glass with water.

Coach chuckled at the young man and picked up his fork and knife. Once Ellis sat back down everyone was eating their steak ravenously.

Everyone but Nick.

As soon as he looked down at his plate his stomach began to churn uneasily. The sight of meat abosolutely digusted him. It repulsed him more than the time a Boomer had thrown up all over his precious suit. All he could think of was those monsters outside. The same monsters that have tried to kill him and the others a thousand times. After months of hacking up rotting flesh with an axe, or machete, or crowbar, or anything else they could find and shooting holes the size of his fist through zombie stomachs and watching their intestines fall out and feeling blood splatter on his face, he couldn't look at a steak without thinking of those mealy-mouthed bastards.

_Come on, Nicholas, it's just meat. Cooked beef. For fuck's sake if Ellis can eat it without thinking of all that shit, you sure as hell can._

But he couldn't. The thought of slicing into the juicy cow flesh and spearing it with a fork and actually putting it in his mouth and _chewing it _made his empty stomach heave. There was no way he was going to be a pussy about this. Not in front of the others. There was only one thing to do. He took his wine in his hand and downed the entire glass in one drink. Luckily everyone else was enraptured by their own dinner to notice anything he was doing. His mouth burned as he reached for the bottle to refill his glass, this time filling it with even more than he had put into Ellis' glass. After downing that glass as well he tried looking at his meat again. This time it wasn't gross. In fact it looked delicous. His stomach growled and he started eating.

"Damn Coach, you sure know you're way around a steak," Rochelle complimented the man.

"Hell, I've hosted my fair share of barbeques before the world went to shit," He replied.

"Man, there was this one time on the 4th of July when me and Kieth were sixteen and his family was having a big cook out and his dad had even bought a shitload of fireworks and everything. Well see, Kieth got this idea to set off some fireworks on his own, but given his history with flamable objects his dad said he wasn't allowed. Now that didn't stop Kieth none, instead he stole some of the fireworks from where his dad had hid 'em and dragged me back behind the house where no one could see us. And I don't think I gotta tell you all the details, but -"

"Lemme guess," Nick slurred, finally resurfacing from his empty plate and glass, "Burns on 95% of his body."

Ellis grinned at the man but didn't finish his story because Rochelle started asking questions.

"Nick, sweetie, did you drink more than half of this bottle of wine?" she asked with wide eyes as she held up the now empty bottle for closer inspection.

"I might have," Nick hiccupped and looked at her with sleepy looking green eyes..

"Okay, I think it's time you went to bed," Rochelle gestured at Coach to help her get the conman up off his stool.

"It's okay you guys," Ellis stood up before Coach had the chance, "I can get 'im up there if you guys want to try to find some food to take with us tomorrow."

"Yeah, alright son," Coach agreed after a moment of thought, "Just make sure you got your gun ready on your way up to the rooms and we'll see you in the mornin'"

Ellis nodded and put his arm around Nick's waist and put Nick's arm around his own shoulders. The two men made their way up the stairs unsteadily and Ellis dropped Nick twice with an immediate, "Sorry!" as a reaction. Nick barely noticed all the jostling of his body in his drunken state of mind. The only time he opened his eyes was when he heard the opening of a door and was pushed onto a bed in a dark room.

"Sorry," Ellis apologized again and turned on the lamp next to Nick's head.

"It's my own fault for drinking so goddamn much," the con man said and put his palms over his eyes, "But I'll be fine, I've drank a lot more than that in one sitting and was still able to find my way home."

Ellis started to remove Nick's shoes and socks and asked, "What made you want to drink so much anyway?"

Nick sighed and pried his hands away from his face in order look at the end of the bed and lock his green eyes with Ellis' blue. "I couldn't eat the steak."

"What do ya mean? Was there somethin' wrong with it?" Ellis looked at Nick with a confused pinch of his eyebrows that Nick thought was so goddamn cute.

"No, champ, there was something wrong with me," he smirked and wiped his face with his hand again, this time out of shame, not exhaustion.

"I don't know what that means," The hick said with a shake of his head. He continued removing the majority of both of their clothes til they were both in their underwear. Ellis kept his t-shirt on but removed his hat and sat down on the bed next to Nick and crossed his legs.

Nick was always hesitant to talk about his feelings, even with Ellis, but the alcohol had impaired his judgment and he started to talk through gritted teeth. "Every goddamn time I tried to look at that goddamn steak all I could think about was zombies. Chopping up zombies and shooting zombies and zombies exploding and zombies puking and zombies eating and coughing up blood on my goddamn face," he exhaled and closed his eyes once again. He didn't want to see Ellis' face. Nick felt ashamed. He was supposed to be strong. For the group. For Ellis. He put up walls to make sure shit like this didn't happen to him, but one piece of meat is able to take all that away.

"Nick," Ellis began hesitantly, "It's a good thing that you're thinkin' like that. If we could just kill all them things everyday without feeling anything at all, then that's when we stop being people. That's when this zombie-apocolypse shit has really ended the world. As long as we've still got a conscience, we're still people and the world ain't over yet."

Nick looked over at the young man staring at him with big, blue eyes. This beautiful man who just wanted to make everything seem okay in this god-for-saken hell they lived in. Nick knew just by looking at that stupid, immature, irresponsible, wonderful hick that as long as he was with him, they would continue to be people. And they would continue to live, as painful as livng in this world is, Ellis made it bareable. He made everyday worth living. He made every zombie worth killing and every bullet worth a shot.

But Nick wasn't drunk enough to say any of that out loud.

"I didn't see any of you ready to puke because of a piece of meat," Nick smirked and looked away from Ellis' soul-searching eyes.

Ellis smiled, "I guess you just think about stuff more than the rest of us."

"Well that I _know _is true," Nick laughed.

Ellis smiled at the man and was silent for a few minutes, just holding Nick's hand and on the bed and brushing his thumb over the other man's knuckles. That gentle touch felt amazing to Nick, almost sobering.

"I'm gonna take a shower before bed so I can be as clean as possible tomorrow. Who knows when we'll get another chance to use hot water," Ellis said and gently pulled his hand out of Nick's grip and rolled off the bed.

Nick watched as Ellis went into the bathroom and listened to the water start running.

Ellis closed the bathroom door half way and started taking off the remainder of his clothes. Once he was naked he stepped under the stream of hot water. He turned in a slow circle letting the water run over his tired body. Ellis felt his muscles relax and loosen from the steam.

Then he felt cold air rush over his skin, leaving goose bumps behind. Ellis turned around and saw a naked Nick standing where the shower curtain had been a moment before. Nick looked hungrily over Ellis' wet body, making the mechanic blush.

"Nick, are you gonna get in the damn shower or you just gonna stand there and let the cold air in?" Ellis asked.

Nick smirked and stepped inside the shower closing the curtain behind him. The con man wrapped his arms around Ellis and buried his face into his neck.

Ellis moaned as he felt Nick's teeth graze against his collarbone and tangled his fingers in the gambler's dark hair. Tugging gently he brought the con man's mouth to his own. Their mouths locked in a wet yet vice-like grip of battling lips and tongues. Nick poured all of his frustration and insecurity into Ellis' open mouth, their tongues danced and wrestled, their hot breath washing over eachother. Nick slowly moved his hands to Ellis' thighs and lifted him. The redneck wrapped his legs around Nick's waist pressing his erection into the older man's stomach. The older man pressed Ellis against the shower wall, never breaking the lock he had on the young man's mouth.

Nick groaned at the feeling of Ellis' throbbing cock against his skin. He moved his mouth to Ellis' chest and began to suck his hot, wet skin. Using his legs and the shower wall to support Ellis' weight Nick pushed one finger against Ellis' entrance. The mechanic groaned and opened his eyes wide, throwing his head back. Nick pushed another finger inside him and started scissoring his fingers in order to stretch the taught muscle that was Ellis' anus.

Nick felt Ellis' groans of pleasure vibrate in his chest against his mouth. He removed both of his fingers from his lover and pushed the tip of his penis into the younger man. Ellis' whole body shivered as Nick pushed the entire length of his cock into him. Th hick raked his fingers through Nick's thick hair and panted as the older man thrust into him. Both of their bodies rocked to the rhythm of the powerful humping. They were panting and light headed because of the steam, but Nick kept them upright regardless. It was obvious Nick had struck Ellis' prostrate when the mechanic shouted and gripped his arms and legs tighter to Nick. The feeling of their flushed and sweating skin rubbing against eachother made Nick thrust harder and more forcefully into the young man.

That was enough to set the gambler over the edge. His face contorted with orgasmic pleasure as he rode out his climax. Nick's moan made Ellis come immediately after, all over the con man's stomach.

Ellis unwound his legs from around Nick's hips and dropped down to stand on the floor of the shower. He winced as Nick's, now soft, penis exited him. Ellis pressed his damp forehead agianst Nick's as they panted against eachother's flushed faces. Nick, still panting, reached behind his lover and shut the water off. He opened the curtain and stepped out of the shower. Grabbing a towel with one hand, he helped Ellis out of the shower with the other.

Nick could tell Ellis was about to pass out from exhaustion so he sat him down on the toilet and began to dry both of them off. The gambler carefully rubbed the towel over Ellis' skin and harshly, so he was quick, dried himself off. When he was finished, he put one arm around Ellis' shoulders and the other behind his knees and picked him up. Despite his half-drunkeness Nick managed to make it to the bed and carefully place Ellis under the blankets. Nick went to the opposite side of the bed and crawled in beside the young mechanic. Ellis rolled over without opening his eyes and pressed his face into Nick's chest.

"I love you, Nick," Ellis mumbled, his lips ticklng Nick's chest.

Nick hesitated for a moment, shocked at the sudden declaration. Wrapping his arms tightly around the young man and sighing, closed his eyes, and whispered all the things he couldn't say before into Ellis' ear.


End file.
